Polishing my car

[geraintthomas]

Nice write up. The only other things I tend to tell people is to never dry the car with a chamois, lubricate the DA pad with either a quick squirt of water or detailing spray, and never polish in sunlight. After that, you can't go wrong

Beautiful looking car.

[Frodo]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

The only other things I tend to tell people is to never dry the car with a chamois..

I always find this recommendation interesting. I've used a chamois for decades (though I never got real serious about detailing until I got the Box) and have never seen a problem with it. We wash our vehicles with relatively "rough" microfiber towels or MF mittens. When I use a chamois I first dunk it in a bucket full of clean water and swirl it around to make sure it's nice and clean. It feels silky smooth, and is then used to gently get the worst of the wetness off a now-clean finish.

I've done this with my Box (a 2001) for 10 years now. I purchased a PC random orbital polisher shortly after acquiring the car in 2006, but the car has never been polished because, for the vast majority of that time, it's had virtually no swirls to be concerned about polishing away. Admittedly, that's now started to change---there's a few light swirls---but I don't buy the "Well, there you go" indictment of the chamois. The never-been-polished car's now 15 years old---I would be truly astounded if it had no swirls. The few swirls I see now I believe are attributable to the process of washing.

To me, use of a clean, pre-wetted chamois seems like a harmless way of getting water (and water spots) off a newly clean car finish.